'This is really getting real.' NASA's Artemis 2 moon rocket fueling test went so well, astronauts could launch March 6

NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical on mobile launcher 1 at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 10, 2026. .

The first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years will launch just two weeks from now, if all goes according to plan.

NASA announced today (Feb. 20) that it's targeting March 6 for the liftoff of Artemis 2, which will send four astronauts on a trip around the moon. No people have been beyond low Earth orbit since December 1972, when the Apollo 17 crew returned from lunar realms.